The Redpoll: Alaska's Charismatic Microfauna: Our Mostly Six-Legged Neighbors
The Redpoll: Alaska's Charismatic Microfauna: Our Mostly Six-Legged Neighbors
The Redpoll: Alaska's Charismatic Microfauna: Our Mostly Six-Legged Neighbors
Arctic Audubon Offers Small Arctic Audubon Field Trip to UA Museum of the North Bird Collection
Grants ....................... 2 Saturday, February 13, 1:00 pm, UA Museum of the North
Board News .................... 3 Join Arctic Audubon for a look at the UA Museum of the North bird collection. Jack
Calendar . ....................... 4 Withrow, Curator of Ornithology, will be our guide. We will meet inside the museum at
Christmas Bird Count . ...... 3
the main entrance.
Great Backyard Bird Count..2 Kanuti Whimbrels: Unlocking the mystery of their southward migration
Rusty Blackbird Project Needs Wednesday, February 17, 7 pm, Alaska Bird Observatory, 418 Wedgewood Drive
Volunteers ................. 3 Biologist Chris Harwood will detail the southward migrations of Whimbrels breeding on
Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge in north-central Alaska to their non-breeding grounds in
Central and South America. For more information, call 451-7159.
Page The Redpoll February 2010
Fairbanks Area
A rctic Audubon Society’s Small Grants Program funds conservation
related projects that support our mission to protect Alaska’s ecosystems
by encouraging research, education, and management that will contribute
Hiking & Birding Map to appreciation and good stewardship of our natural heritage This year will
The Fairbanks Area Hik- be our seventh year of offering small grants.
ing & Birding Guide is In 2010 Arctic Audubon will consider applications for small grants of up
sold in Fairbanks for $12 to $1000. Partial funding may be offered to several applicants. Proposed
at the Alaska Bird Obser- projects should enhance the understanding and conservation of northern
vatory Education Center, Alaska’s organisms and/or ecosystems. Projects dedicated to increasing
Beaver Sports, Friends of public awareness and knowledge of conservation issues are appropriate, as are
Creamer’s Field Farm- projects that develop educational tools. All applications will be considered
house Visitor Center, Geophysical and responded to. High school and middle school students and teachers
Institute Map Office, and Gulliver’s are encouraged to apply. Successful applicants will be expected to submit a
Books. Maps can be ordered via email report of outcomes and may be asked to give a short public presentation.
at [email protected]. Applicants should submit:
• A one page cover letter introducing themselves and including contact
Alaska eBird information
Alaska eBird is a great way to record • A one page project description that includes a budget and timeline for
your observations, manage your life list, completion.
and help contribute to avian monitoring
and conservation in Alaska. Visit the Applications are due March 15, 2010. Please submit by email to
Alaska eBird website, which includes [email protected] or by mail to Arctic Audubon, PO Box 82098,
photos, interesting birding news and Fairbanks, Alaska 99708.
features, as well as observation records: Arctic Audubon Society is a nonprofit conservation organization based in
http://ebird.org/content/ak/ Fairbanks, Alaska. As a chapter of the National Audubon Society our region
encompasses the area north of the Alaska Range, including the North Slope
Email Delivery of Newsletter and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
E-Delivery of Arctic Audubon’s For more information about Arctic Audubon visit our website at www.
newsletter, The Redpoll, is now an op- arcticaudubon.org. Please direct questions to [email protected].
tion. Contact the newsletter editor
at [email protected] to receive your
newsletter via email instead of by postal
Great Backyard Bird Count
delivery. February 12-15, 2010
T ake part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count February 12–15.
Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from novice
bird watchers to experts. Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes
(or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and report their
sightings online at www.birdcount.org.
Each checklist submitted by these “citizen scientists” helps researchers at
the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society learn
more about how the birds are doing—and how to protect them. Last year,
participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the con-
tinent’s largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.
For more information about the GBBC, visit the website at www.bird-
count.org. The Great Backyard Bird Count is made possible, in part, by
Mallard in winter on the Chena River.
generous support from Wild Birds Unlimited.
Photo by Ken Whitten
February 2010 The Redpoll Page